Target organ damage and target systolic blood pressure in clinical practice: The campania salute network

Abstract

Background Lowering systolic blood pressure (SBP) below the conventional threshold (140 mm Hg) reduces left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and incident cardiovascular (CV) events. We assessed whether different thresholds of SBP as the average value during follow-up (FU) have different impact on changes in target organ damage (TOD). METHODS From the Campania Salute Network registry, we selected 4,148 hypertensive patients with average SBP-FU <140 mm Hg, and without history of prevalent CV or chronic kidney disease (i.e., < 0.05). In both subgroups, there were no changes over time in LVMi and GFR, whereas the IMT increased during the FU (P < 0.004), with no signifcant effect of degree of SBP control. CONCLUSIONS In a registry of treated hypertensive patients from a tertiary care center, progression of TODs is not related to average SBP during FU.